Month: February 2017

I’m going to attempt to do a quick review of my weekly reads. I’m going to show a DC bias, simply because at the moment, I’m finding that DC is, frankly, better than what Marvel is putting out. Don’t get me wrong– some of my favourite heroes are from Marvel– but I find that Marvel is really floundering of late. Any time I read about what’s happening in titles I used to collect, I end up injuring my eyes with how hard I roll them. Meanwhile, DC is totally killing it with their ongoing Rebirth event.

So, the titles I picked up this week:

Justice League #14

Batman #16

Nightwing #14

Aquaman #16

Superman #16

Spoilers below

Starting with Justice League, I have to say I enjoyed this issue more than any of the previous ones, although I do still have some things that I dislike. On the positive side, I enjoyed the interaction between characters and the references to the pre-New 52 universe, which resulted in the current League finding out that Batman has been keeping files on how to defeat them all in this universe as well. I’d really like to know the timeline of this series though, because Bruce’s attitude toward Clark is not up to date with how they relate to each other in Trinity or the various Superman titles. It’s also odd to see Flash interested in Jessica Cruz while his own title sees him making headway with Iris. Story-wise, I found it a bit odd that this issue’s villain (a giant ship that travels the galaxy strip-mining entire solar systems before moving on) destroys most of an unnamed Canadian city and there is hardly any reaction to what would be a massive loss of life. then this enemy is defeated off-panel, which is just… lazy. While the title is improving, I’m going to give it 6/10.

This week’s issue of Batman, like Justice League, was better than previous issues, although I still don’t like Tom King’s portrayal of the Dark Knight. While I enjoyed the interactions between the various Robins in this issue (Dick, Jason and Damian), Bruce himself is generally unpleasant. King has the annoying habit of having Bruce and Selena Kyle refer to each other as Bat and Cat, which I find somewhat irritating (actually, quite irritating), but that’s not half as bad as the recent revelation that they are drawn to each other because they can sense that they are both suicidal. Seriously. This dry, humourless Batman is really not the same man that we see making Star Wars references in Justice League, or the one that is coming to understand the value of having a support team in Detective. While the story is holding my interest for the moment, the little nitpicky things are adding up to be an annoyance to me. 6.5/10

Nightwing is, so far, an interesting title. I’m enjoying seeing Dick back in Blüdhaven and the supporting cast of former villains is interesting.It’s a bit early to judge, but this new story arc is an improvement over the previous one, featuring the rather uninspired character of Raptor. I’m a little confused as to Dick’s current relationship status, however. Since Rebirth began, I have seen him seeming to still have some feelings for Starfire and he has had dates with Batgirl (and seemed to be rather serious about a relationship with her), but his own series now sees him in the early stages of a romance with Defacer. I guess Dick is just a slut… 7/10

I was all set for Aquaman to have a battle with Ocean Master in this week’s issue. After all, it seems that every time I read Aquaman, he is alternating between Ocean Master and Black Manta as his main opponent. I’d started to believe that he had no other villains in his rogues gallery, but this issue introduces us to the threat of Warhead– either an armoured human, or perhaps a robot with psychic abilities. I am not sure if this is a reworking of the Earth-1 Warhead, but I would imagine it’s a new character. Aquaman has been rather good since Rebirth began. I think that there could be any number of great stories told with Atlantis as a backdrop. I still think Aquaman could be a great underwater Game of Thrones…. 7.5/10

Finally, Superman seemingly wraps up the Multiplicity story arc, which found the various Supermen from the 52 known alternate earths coming together to face a threat from beyond. This story has been interesting and shows us how our Superman really is the best of the bunch. The story also hints again that Superman is not what he appears, as he is referred to as an anomaly in this issue by the character of Prophecy, who doesn’t even recognize him as Superman despite the fact that he is gathering all the known Supermen in the multiverse. Of course, this is just another tease, as we are not given any new information in regards to whatever they have coming up for DC’s number one hero… 8.5/10

All-in-all, a decent batch this week, but nothing hugely exciting.

What are your thoughts on DC’s Rebirth event? What is your favourite title and why? What title will you simply not bother reading? What do you predict for the next several months? Let me know. I’d love to hear some other opinions.